The Check-In: Moss Inducted to Triathlon Hall of Fame

The iconic Julie Moss joined the Triathlon Hall of Fame, IRONMAN 70.3 athletes excel at long-distance duathlon, and a triathlete aids investigators in Boston.

Three Inducted to Triathlon Hall of Fame

Three outstanding multisport athletes who helped define the landscape of triathlon were inducted into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame Thursday. Age-grouper Missy LeStrange, paratriathlon pioneer Jim MacLaren and the iconic Julie Moss have all left indelible marks on the still-growing community.

Moss was introduced by longtime sports broadcaster Jim Lampley who recalled for the audience how Moss's incredible crawl to the finish line at the 1982 IRONMAN World Championship made such a lasting impression. "People in edit rooms were blown away," Lampley said. "We knew we had to get it on the air in exactly the right way."

"I was being transformed into someone who felt like I deserved to be thinking of myself as someone who was good at something," said Moss of the final 400 meters of her memorable finish.

LeStrange was honored for her phenomenal career during which she won 14 IRONMAN events and competed in a total of 24.

MacLaren's left leg was amputated below the knee following a 1985 accident and, through his rehabilitation, he discovered triathlon and a welcoming community. He finished the 1989 IRONMAN World Championship in 10 hours, 42 minutes—a record that stood for 11 years—before a second accident left MacLaren a quadriplegic. He passed away in 2010.

Bob Babbitt, himself a Hall of Famer, remembered MacLaren as a man who set out to change perceptions. For MacLaren, "it wasn't about being accepted," Babbitt said: "It was about showing that someone with a prosthetic could do anything."

The USA Triathlon Hall of Fame was founded in 2008, and this year's class brings the total number of inductees to 22. Visit usatriathlon.org for more information.

Aernouts, Gossage Crowned European Long Distance Duathlon Champs

Belgium’s Bert Aernouts and Britain’s Lucy Gossage were crowned European Long Distance Duathlon champions over the weekend in Horst, Netherlands. Aernouts is a five-time IRONMAN 70.3 champion, while Gossage has one IRONMAN 70.3 title and a number of long-distance race wins to her credit. Gossage squeezes in her training and racing around her profession as an oncologist in Cambridge.

Triathlete David Green Plays Key Role in Boston Hunt

Multiple IRONMAN finisher and CEO of compression company 110% David Green ran the Boston marathon last Monday. After he finished, he ducked into a restaurant to charge his phone and wait for friends. He heard the bombs and managed to snap one photo that launched him to the front of the hunt for suspects.

After the FBI released images of the two suspects, friends began to comment on Green's photo, which he had posted on Facebook. The 49-year-old contacted the FBI and, as he told CNN, "they immediately knew that they had something."

Green's photo was eventually deemed the best image of the man eventually narrowed down as "suspect number two," Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev.

Don’t Lose Sight of Your Dreams

Katie Kelly can’t always see what’s in front of her, but she knows exactly where she is going. That destination is IRONMAN Australia, Port Macquarie, on May 5.

Kelly, 38, suffers from Usher's Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder which results in hearing loss and visual impairment and is a leading cause of deafness and blindness. She’s worn hearing aids since she was five and has been unable to drive since her eyesight started to deteriorate in her early 20s. While her night vision is poor, her day vision remains good enough to swim, bike and run without a guide. She’s done almost all of her cycling training indoors because of limited peripheral vision. After joining a triathlon club in her hometown of Newcastle to improve her running and meet people, Kelly quickly fell victim to the lure of IRONMAN.

"My tri group, TriNova, trains a group of awesome Newcastle triathletes of all levels. Being surrounded by so many IRONMAN athletes, it didn't take long before I officially swapped all things of a normal social life and said ‘I'll do an IRONMAN.’"